Politics

The U.S. Chamber’s depressing new board game

Jonathan Strong Jonathan Strong, 27, is a reporter for the Daily Caller covering Congress. Previously, he was a reporter for Inside EPA where he wrote about environmental regulation in great detail, and before that a staffer for Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA). Strong graduated from Wheaton College (IL) with a degree in political science in 2006. He is a huge fan of and season ticket holder to the Washington Capitals hockey team. Strong and his wife reside in Arlington.
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Eager to push an agenda against government regulations it says are hurting American businesses, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is sending a brand new board game, “This Way to Jobs,” to every congressional office.

In the genre of congressional office handouts, it’s a pretty clever marketing ploy. Player avatars labeled “CEO,” “entrepreneur” and so on battle their way from a taxed-to-death “Main Street” to “Prosperity Park,” hoping to avoid traps like “Lawsuit Lake” and the dreaded “Red Tape Zone.”

The eyes of many a congressional staff assistant will no doubt light up at the sight of the game, but let The Daily Caller provide a word of warning.

This game is utterly depressing.

TheDC (briefly) played the game, and our players didn’t get anywhere. At almost every turn we were forced to move backwards, having hit another burdensome “regulation.”

Each turn, the player grabs a card akin to a “Chance” card in Monopoly.

Roughly 90% force the player — because he or she is facing angry bureaucrats — to move back on the board or lose a turn. Only 10% move you forward, making it rather difficult to win. The Environmental Protection Agency comes out looking particularly evil.

Here’s a sample negative card: “In 2014, you are a small manufacturing firm with 50 employees. You opt to drop your health care coverage and elect to purchase on an exchange.” (This refers to the health care exchange markets established, starting in 2014, in President Obama’s health care law.) “Many employees are upset about losing their coverage and quit their jobs, leaving you understaffed for production purposes.

“Move back 2 spaces.”

Here’s another nightmare scenario. “You fired two employees because you have video evidence of them taking illegal drugs on your property.” Not so fast! “The National Labor Relations Board orders you to rehire the employees since you didn’t bargain with the union about the location of the video camera.

“Move back 1 space.”

As you can imagine, outcomes like these nine out of ten times make for a rather bleak game-playing experience.

Despite the lackluster game-play, the U.S. Chamber may end up smiling. One GOP congressional staffer, who played the game Monday afternoon, reacted this way at the “boring” game play: “Damn Democrats!”